Archive for October, 2012

With all of its devastation, Hurricane Sandy––the worst disaster ever to hit the East coast––may have jolted this nation’s political leaders into openly discussing Global Warming as the most serious threat our nation faces.

The wide-ranging hurricane leaves: At least 50 people dead; States and cities trying to cope with unprecedented flooding in streets, subways, and airports; Power outages in some seven million homes; Public drinking water shut-off, and flood water mixing with odious overflowing sewerage; Crushed cars, trucks, boardwalks, and houses ripped off their foundations floating away in streets of rivers, etc.

The U.S. has not seen a disaster like this in more than a century. Usually safe locations, such as shelters and hospitals––simply failed. Hospital generators shut down, requiring patients to be moved elsewhere. In some operating hospitals, workers had to lug fuel up flights of stairs to keep emergency generations going.

As of Tuesday morning, some 750,000 people were without power in New York City with heating, air conditioning, ventilation systems, etc. shut down. The head of Con Ed says that the damage from Hurricane Sandy is “unprecedented in scope.” Another 2.4 million Americans in New Jersey are without power.

Raging winds drove fires to burn over 100 homes to the ground in New York city as firemen watched hopelessly because they had no water power to fight with.
The Salvation Army and Red Cross scramble to provide meals in scores of shelters.

The 110 year New York subway is completely flooded, and late Tuesday evening officials asked the Army Corp of Engineers to help drain the seven flooded subway tunnels. Scant parts of bus services are finally back up, but most streets are so packed with sand that movement is impossible. Schools are closed.

Amtrak can provide some transportation service. But not airports. Eighteen thousand flights in the U.S. and around the world are still cancelled because the great New York airports are completely flooded. Moreover, with no subways running, most airport workers can’t make it to work.

And oh yes, Sandy also brought three feet of snow to the hills of West Virginia, and full damage there is still not reported. Insurance companies estimate Sandy’s wreckage will reach billions of dollars. However, only tomorrow when Wall Street tries to reopen, after Sandy left it in a historic two-day shut-down, may we begin to know just how heavy she may have hit the American economy.

As New York governor Andrew Cuomo said, Sandy is the second hurricane of ‘a life-time’ that has hit the East Coast in two years. Therefore, our nation must do some re-thinking. About Global Warming.? Do ya think?

Let us turn ourselves to urgent prayer to The Most High God. As King David says in Bible prophecies in Psalm 62: 11: “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.” He has the power to turn our leaders to see the truth about Global Warming, and to change the nation’s direction.

A triple crown of Global Warming whacky weather, Hurricane Sandy brings frightening merger of a Caribbean tropical storm and two winter weather systems to create the 18th storm of the hurricane season––and potentially the most deadly.

Forecasters call Sandy ‘a hybrid monster storm,’ ‘Frankenstorm,’
‘Megastorm,’ etc., claiming it will bring waves from three to six feet to New York shores, and up to two feet of snow to West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Wayne Parry and Emery P. Dalesio of the Associate Press add: “An 800-mile wide swath of the country could see 50 mph winds regardless of Sandy’s strength, the storm could be wider and stronger than Irene, which caused more than $15 billion in damage, and could rival the worst East Coast storm on record, hurricane-force winds of 75 mph could be felt 100 miles away from the storm’s center.”

They also report that New Jersey’s barrier island are under mandatory evacuation, as are all Atlantic City casinos and state parks. New York city has shut down all public transportation, including subways, bus and other rail service.

In total Sandy killed between 29 and 40 people in the Caribbean: 11 in Cuba, 16 in Haiti and one in Jamaica are known. For these islands, this was the worse storm of the decade, tearing off roofs and damaging coffee and vegetable crops.

Power outages are also expected from the havoc, as the public is warned to be prepared for several days with no electricity. Parry, along with Brock Vergakis, quote Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy: “Assume that you will be in the midst of flooding conditions, the likes of which you may not have seen at any of the major storms that have occurred over the last 30 years.”

However, utility companies promise governors in every state that they are far better prepared for this storm than they were for Hurricane Irene. They claim to have extra electrical power crews and tree trimmers in place. Company bosses are especially concerned that leaves remaining on trees will over-weigh them to fall.

Farmers and home planters are pulling crops out of the ground as quickly as possible. Most people are moving outside furniture into homes and sheds; and many are boarding up houses and driving far away with their valued possessions.

James Franklin, chief forecaster for the National Hurricane Center in Miami estimates: “It’s going to be a long-lasting event, two to three days of impact for a lot of people. Wind damage, widespread power outages, heavy rainfall, inland flooding and somebody is going to get a significant surge event.”

Kevin Boyle, Administrator of the Borough of Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, asks people to pray: “You’re preparing for the worst and praying for the best, and whatever God can do to keep it from whacking, we’d appreciate it.”

We at Earthend say “Amen” to that. Let’s get out our Christian prayer books and ask Our Father to move this giant threat away from us and on out to sea, in The Holy Name of The LORD Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen!

Dr. Ad Versery: Sarah, this unseasonably warm Global Warming weather will bring more sickness and disease to our shores. Although my staff has concentrated on the rise of fungal Meningitis, cases of West Nile Virus are still rising. So we remind readers to: get rid of standing water, cover arms, legs and feet, and avoid going out at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active.

Sarah Newsworthy: Yes Doc. You are right. This peculiar warm fall weather is but another indication of growing threats of Global Warming to our nation’s health. And now, by the way, to their property. Another rather strange weather pattern, Hurricane Sandy, is on the way up the East Coast.

Although it may not go beyond a category one storm, Jeff Franks of Reuters calls Hurricane Sandy menacing: “U.S. government forecasters warned that much of the U.S. East Coast could get swiped by Sandy, with flooding, heavy rains and high winds beginning late Thursday in Florida. By early next week––amid final preparations for the crucial November 6 presidential election––the storm could hit an area of New England where Hurricane Irene caused severe damage last year.”

Dr. Ad Versery: Awful! And all that rain and flooding will leave standing water. And with that water will come more mosquitoes. As it is, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that as of yesterday, West Nile virus has killed 219 Americans, 36 deaths of which occurred just last week.

Reuters’ Marice Richter says: “In what is the second-worst year on record for the disease, the total number of cases of West Nile virus across the United States grew to 4,725, with 194 new cases reported.”

West Nile is a lingering illness, meaning patients may be sick for month before dying. This is especially important because of the unusually high number of neuro-invasive forms of the virus which can lead to meningitis and encephalitis.

Sarah Newsworthy: So then, immediately after Hurricane Sandy has passed, city and state officials should begin aerial spraying programs to eliminate mosquitoes. And continue spraying until standing waters dry up. In really warm states, such as Arizona, governments are still spraying against mosquitoes.

Forecasters call Sandy a ‘Frankenstorm.” Bob Oravec, forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration posits: “It’s going to be a high-impact event. . . . coastal flooding [and] power outages are definitely a big threat.”

Jeff Masters, forecaster for Weather Underground claims Sandy’s landfall along the Mid-Atlantic Coast could be “a billion-dollar disaster.” He explains that computer forecast models indicated Sandy had the potential to unleash “the heaviest October rains ever reported in the northeast U.S.”

Dr. Ad Versery: Let’s get word to Brothers John, Jude and Michael, and their prayer teams, to pray now for the nation’s safety. Christian prayer books promise: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men (1 Timothy 2: 1).”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NCR) accidentally leaked an un-redacted report this week, and the fallout reveals that NRC officials know several nuclear plants in the U.S. will endanger American lives if flooding occurs.

Advocates for safer nuclear power policies now insist that NCR has been lying to the public for years. While behind the scenes they site private ownership of power plants for unsafe conditions, and ever so gently nudge private companies make power plants safer ‘as soon as possible’––they tell the public plants are safe!

Duke Energy operates the Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina. Tom Zeller, Jr. writes in ‘Leaked Report Suggests Long-Known Flood Threat To Nuclear Plants, Safety Advocates Say,’ “. . . the report indicates that the NRC has known for a decade or longer that failure of a dam upriver from the Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina would cause floodwaters to overwhelm the plant’s three reactors and their cooling equipment.”

Employees of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have publicly questioned the safety of the Jocassee Dam, that sits just 11 miles from the Oconee Nuclear Power Plant. One of the employees, Larry Criscione, has extensive concerns about flood damage that will occur because flood waters will not have exits to large bodies of water as in Japan. Americans will be threatened.

In his letter to Congress, Criscione says if, after much flooding, Duke Energy is unable to re-establish cooling to the containment buildings. . . “a dam break at Jocassee Lake will cause a Fukushima-style accident in Oconee County, South Carolina. Except instead of blowing out to sea as happened in Japan, depending on the winds, the radioactivity will be blown over Columbia or Charleston or Atlanta or Huntsville or Knoxville or Charlotte. Whatever the winds, the radioactive fallout will occur over farmlands and not merely over the ocean.”

The un-redacted report also admits that NRC calculates that the odds of the Jocassee Dam failing in the next two decades are “far higher” that the odds of a tsunami causing a meltdown at the Fukushima plant.

Moreover, Zeller reveals: “The NRC report identifies flood threats from upstream dams at nearly three dozen other nuclear facilities in the United States, including the Fort Calhoun Station in Nebraska, the Prairie Island facility in Minnesota and the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee, among others.”

Yet the NRC has not required these 36 plants to build high flood walls that could withstand massive Fukushima-type floods. If the NRC even suggests better safety, companies like Duke just complain. Recently, the company replied: “. . . an upstream dam failure of our modern dams is a one-in-a-million-years type event.”

Hmm. Interesting they can so easily gamble with the lives of customers paying their salaries? I may expect this in Japan, but not here. As Christian messages warn “Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29: 19). The American people and the NRC need new visions of the dangers of nuclear power!

In addition to my new assignments on China and other Asian nations, and staying on top of things in Japan, Jael asked me to assess the flood-safety of nuclear plants in the U. S. After seeing Japan’s continual mis-assessments of flood waters and earthquake dangers, I knew it was only a matter of time before American journalists would insist on the truth about similar hazards here.

As in Japan, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is hiding information about encroaching dangers to our nation’s nuclear power plants. But recently Greenpeace got ahold of, and shared, an unredacted NRC report. David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and safety advocate with the Union of Concerned Scientists says of the ‘uncorrected’ version: “. . . the NRC is lying to the American public about the safety of U.S. reactors.”

Susie Madrak of Crooks and Liars.com agrees: The uncovered “report highlights the threat that flooding poses to nuclear power plants located near large dams––and suggests that the NRC has misled the public for years about the severity of the threat, according to engineers and nuclear safety advocates.”

In “Leaked Report Suggests Long-Known Flood Threat To Nuclear Plants, Safety Advocates Say,” Tom Zeller, Jr. gives specifics: “. . . evidence in the report indicates that the NRC has known for a decade. . . that failure of a dam upriver from the Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina would cause floodwaters to overwhelm the plant’s three reactors and their cooling equipment––not unlike what befell Japan’s Fukushima Dai-chi facility after an earthquake and tsunami struck.”

Zeller insists: “According to the NRC’s own calculations, . . . the odds of the dam near the Oconee plant failing at some point over the next 22 years are far higher than were the odds of an earthquake-induced tsunami causing a meltdown at the Fukushima plant.” He writes further that the exposed report “identifies flood threats from upstream dams at nearly three dozen other nuclear facilities in the United States, including the Fort Calhoun Station in Nebraska, the Prairie Island facility in Minnesota and the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee, among others.”

Even NRC employees question the Commission’s commitment to safety. Larry Criscione, NRC risk engineer, accused the Commission of doublespeak: “I think they’re being dishonest.” He speaks of Duke Energy which operates a nuclear plant 11 miles from the Jocassee Dam. Criscione recently wrote Congress: “There are many people within Duke Energy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who believe that, were Jocassee Dam to fail, all three reactors . . . would melt down in less than 10 hours.”

Why would officials allow such lax oversight of nuclear power. In online Bible lessons, Dr. Reprieslty teaches about God’s requirements for watchmen in Ezekiel chapters 3 and 33. If they don’t warn people that danger is coming, God holds the watchmen responsible. In this case, certainly, the journalists are good watchmen, and Mr. Criscione is among the best!

As of yesterday, October 21, 2012, the death toll from patients injected with venomous drugs from the New England Compounding Center has risen to 23, with an additional 284 Americans sickened––an addition of 13 more cases!

Doctors expect even more patients, as they face unknown medical territory. They now know that patients who survive this malicious outbreak of fungal Meningitis may never fully recover. As doctors struggle to save their patients, they share data with one another, and with researchers. Dr. Benjamin Park, fungal diseases specialist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says:

“This kind of fungal meningitis has not been reported in the medical literature. There is not enough data to say whether it will be more or less responsive to treatment. We don’t know what the outcomes generally are.”

Dr. Arturo Casadevall, expert on fungal infections, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine agrees: “The truth of the matter is that we don’t have any experience with this.” David Brown writing for the Washington Post adds:

“Fungal infections of the brain are as feared as they are rare. They come on slowly and are hard to diagnose. They require at least three months of therapy with often-unpleasant drugs. Treatment failure is common. Survivors are often left with disabilities. . . The fungus invades blood vessels, which clot off and deprive brain tissue of oxygen and blood flow. . . .like slow-moving sharks” attacking swimmers.

Moreover, the anti-fungal medications given to cure this malady have dangerous side effects, including hallucinations, kidney damage and hepatitis. Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University agrees that “intravenous anti-fungal medicines that are tricky to use. These are powerful drugs. They’re toxic. You’re walking a tightrope because you want to get enough into a patient to have the therapeutic effect while at the same time you’re trying not to affect” damage.

All reporters and internet sites are urged to tell the public: “Pass it on: Health officials are not recommending anti-fungal medication as a preventative treatment in the meningitis outbreak, but that could change as more is learned.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that executives at the New England Compounding Center face several civil law suits, and attempts to freeze their millions of dollars in collective assets, including several mansions in Florida.

Brothers John and Jude have added Brother Michael to our prayer teams. He is asking God to give our doctors wisdom to fight this diseases, our politicians courage to strengthen regulations against such carelessness in the pharmaceutical industry, and our nation repentance and forgiveness.

Brother Michael is praying in faith, standing on this Scripture in church banners: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7: 14).”

Doctors and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) are urging other doctors and hospitals with patients who have received spinal or joint injections from the New England Compounding Center (NECC) vials in the last few months to re-examine these patients immediately! Victims have died with this Meningitis infection, and the disease has not been discovered until after their autopsies.

In additional developments: 1) Special FDA agents raided NECC laboratories in Framingham, Massachusetts, origin of the Meningitis infections; 2) Other investigators are looking into that Center’s connection to addictive drugs; 3) The military and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut are concerned that NECC shipped unauthorized drugs to a military base and 4) Additional NECC drugs are thought to be likewise infected.

Julie Steenhuysen of Reuters announced: “U.S. doctors in Baltimore said early diagnosis and treatment of patients at risk of fungal meningitis is vital, based on the case of an otherwise healthy woman who declined rapidly after receiving steroid injections for neck pain.”

The 51-year old woman reported to a hospital emergency room with severe headaches a week after receiving her first injection with NECC’s poisonous medicine on August 31. She did not have a compromised immune system, and she wasn’t taking long-term medications. Returning with more severe symptoms, she was admitted. Doctors tried antibiotics and other drugs, but she continued to decline. She died 10 days later, the same day that doctors discovered evidence of NECC’s Exserohilum in her spinal fluids.

Steenhuysen writes that because of this case, doctors must know the symptoms of fungal meningitis, and begin rapid treatment. “The CDC advises patients who feel ill and are concerned they were injected with one of the recalled products to contact their physician,” even if injections were given months ago!

Senator Blumenthal wrote the Department of Defense for information on specialized medicines NECC’s sister company, Ameridose, sent the Army’s Tripler Medical Center in Honolulu for use in the neonatal intensive care unit there.

“I am deeply concerned that this contract exposed numerous military families to a drug produced by a compounding center that was unregistered with the FDA and un-inspected for safety and effectiveness,” wrote Blumenthal, who has been asking for a criminal investigation of NECC for some time.

As a result of the raid, FDA official Janet Woodcock advises that based on the plant and other factors, “we really can’t assure the sterility of these products.”

We will continue this story tomorrow. For now, pray for families affected by this needless outbreak. And keep in mind God’s promises in wholesale Christian Bibles: “But unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings (Malachi 4: 2).”

In addition to violent protest riots––rising suicides, impoverished families and abandoned babies are increasing among nations in the European Union (EU) hardest hit by Germany’s austerity program. Once it was thought that only Greece was undergoing spikes in suicides, but now Italy, Spain, and even England––among the richest EU nations––all experience the same self-death rates.

Holly Ellyatt, of CNBC, writes: “Europe is approaching a crisis as the region’s . . . austerity measures increase the rates of depression, suicide and psychological problems––as governments cut healthcare spending by up to 50 percent.”

Italy has seen a sharp rise in the number of ‘austerity suicides.’ CNN reports women whose husbands killed themselves formed a group called ‘Vedove Bianche,’ white widows, to illustrate austerity’s human costs. “. . . [they] are the most recent example of the emotional toll . . . [of] austerity measures.”

A recent study in the ‘British Medical Journal’ claims that more than 1,000 people in the England’s United Kingdom may have killed themselves because of the recession. Ellyatt also reports “. . . an increase in the incidence of alcohol abuse, anxiety, depression and requests for abortions due to economic reasons, anecdotal evidence borne out by statistics for anti-depressant requests.”

Moreover, across Europe the number of babies and young children abandoned in churches, clinics, hospitals and ‘baby hatches’ is sky-rocketing. Hatches notify care-takers that a child has been left at the site. Extinction Protocol 2012 and Yahoo Finance issued a report from SOS Villages, a European charity working to help families in financial hardship:

“. . . in the last year alone 1,200 children in Greece and 750 in Italy have been abandoned. That is almost double the 400 children abandoned in Italy a year ago, and up from 114 children abandoned in Greece . . . adoption rates in Greece and Italy have risen by 20 percent in the last two years, . . .”

While EU leaders insist such poverty is only among immigrants, George Protopapas, SOS Greek director, says: “In the past year, SOS Greece has had a 150 percent increase in applications for all kinds of support, . . . and 87 percent of applicants are Greeks. . . Data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority shows that 27.7 percent of Greeks are now facing penury or poverty.”

This all sounds like an 18th century Charles Dickens novel. How could this economic catastrophe come to well-endowed First World nations? It is happening because one country––Germany––wants all of Europe under the heel of her command to march into World War III. As wholesale Christian Bibles teach: “ . . . he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough (Proverbs 28:19).” Germany is Europe’s ‘vain person.’ She is the Black Horse of the Apocalypse bringing poverty, famine and death (Revelations 6:5-7).

Medical reporters have uncovered four important developments in the meningitis outbreak: First, Two more drugs coming from the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Massachusetts, are found to be tainted with deadly contamination.

Second, emails reveal that NECC shipped drugs to pharmacists without prescriptions, which is against state and federal laws. Third, as of last Sunday, seven more people are diagnosed with fungal meningitis linked to tainted steroid medication for a total of 214. Fourth, these meningitis cases are now to 15 states.

MyHealthNewsDaily Staff writes for LiveScience.com, “. . . one case of suspected meningitis has been linked to a drug called triamcinolone acetone, another type of steroid injection. . . [and] two patients undergoing organ transplants developed fungal infections after surgeries that used a NECC drug. . . . called cardioplegic solution . . . administered to paralyze the heart during surgery.” Most of the cases discovered previously involve “methylprednisolone acetate from NECC, a steroid injection used as treatment for back pain.”

Toni Clarke and Aaron Pressman of Reuters reveal that NECC “solicited bulk orders from physicians and failed to require proof of individual patient prescriptions as required under state regulations.” A clinic confirmed that NECC supplied drugs without obtaining patient names or physician directions.

Clarke and Pressman found that NECC has referred business to one its sister companies, Ameridose LLC, although officials had denied it. Both companies are owned by Gregory Conigliaro, an engineer, and Barry Cadden, his brother-in-law. Cadden a pharmacist, had been in charge of NECC’s pharmacy operations.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that seven more patients are now diagnosed with fungal meningitis. The new cases are in New Hampshire, Florida, Indiana and Tennessee. The hardest hit state is Tennessee with 53 cases and six deaths, while Michigan is second with 41 cases and three deaths. Virginia has 34 cases and one death.

The total number of deaths is at 15. It is estimated that NECC shipped some 14,000 vials to 76 medical facilities in 23 states. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) asks all outlets to get word to the public about potential risks for infections using any of these, or other drugs from NECC’s compounding company.

Some states have suspended NECC’s operating license. The Michigan State Attorney General has opened an investigation. He says that, if found guilty of violating his state’s public health code, NECC officials could be imprisoned.

How could federal agencies in charge of this nation’s drug supply have allowed this to happen? The greatest nation on earth should not have its medical care determined by profit-making. Christian messages claim the U.S. is a Christian nation. Thus, most of its citizens believe in Jesus Christ, of Whom it is said: “He. . . healed all that were sick (Matthew 8: 16).”

Why were the American people, until this week, led to believe that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in charge of medical prescriptions and their distribution in this country?

With 14 Americans killed by a deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis, 184 more seriously ill, and some 14,000 others in 23 states threatened––we now learn that no one is in charge of drug manufacturing and distribution in our nation?

How is it possible that pharmaceuticals are handled so irresponsively that unknown private ‘shadow’ corporations––known as ‘compounding companies–– are handsomely paid to mix and distribute medicines with various degrees of lapsed oversight in each of the 50 states.

How can the officially defined FDA duties––“The Consumer Protection Agency of the U.S. Government which monitors medical devices, foods, drugs, biologics, veterinary medicine, and toxicological, . . .”––include passing this responsibility to ‘back alley’ locations, some of which are near garbage dumps?

And just what does ‘monitor’ mean? If the FDA is not overseeing how medicines are made and distributed in the U.S., then what agency of the United States government is? Is it the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? No! Apparently, each state makes up its own rules for distribution. How odd!

The meningitis ailments come from contaminated spinal steroid injections designed to be painkillers. Marissa Fessenden of ‘Scientific American’ reports: “The CDC has identified two kinds of fungi in the meningitis patients: Aspergillus, commonly found in moldy leaves, and Exserohilum, which is involved in wood rot.” The rotten lots began coming from the New England Compounding Center last May. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health in in charge up there.

So why isn’t the FDA in charge? Well, the latest rather twisted outcry is that this agency does not have ‘explicit authority’ or sufficient resources to do the job, that its “legal authority to regulate compounded drugs is complex and has been challenged vigorously by the compounding industry both in courts and Congress.” So its money again! And the ‘compounding industry’ has more clout with the governments than those responsible for the health of the American people!

But critics of the FDA say even so, the Agency is giving lame excuses. Dr. Michael Carome with the Public Citizen advocacy group argues: “They dropped the ball. They either didn’t follow up or have chosen to look the other way or they have chosen to put resources toward other things.”

Which verse from God’s Holy Word need I repeat? That “the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6: 10)” in used Christian Bibles? Or Job’s admonishment, “But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value (Job 13: 4).” All the medical teams of our nation are our physicians. We must be able to trust them! And they must think more of us than of someone’s profit!